enhancing isight picture? any advice?

so my dad and i each have an isight (he is using it on his 15 inch PB AL, 1.25 ghz, 1 gm RAM) and i am using it on my G5 desktop. We both have the latest versions of software, etc; i also have downloaded iGlasses to brighten things. the main problem i am having is that there is a moderate amount of pixelation of the image that i am seeing of him (and i think vice versa). for some reason, the demos in the apple store show much sharper well defined video quality. Now i realize that the Isight is not meant to be a super high quality camera, but i expected a little better. Needless to say, we are both running this on broadband internet. Just wondering if anyone has had similar experience, and if they have any luck enhancing things.

Well the apple store runs it over lan, thus its going to run highest quality possible...

Your using broadband, and you have to remember the quality will only go as far as both your upload speeds... if your broadband is like 128kbps upload and 1.5mbps; then you really can't expect anywhere near the same quality as apple is doing over lan.

Now Apple does say on their website that you only need 100kbps; but thats the absolute minimum and I've never seen a non-pixilated video conference on that amount of bandwidth.

So my asumption is your connection simply isnt quick enough; possibly if you both use tiger (and the new compression) you would get better quality. (unless you mean latest versions of all software and that includes tiger; though generaly when ive been told latest version they only mean the specific software their working with) See http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/ for a comparison of the H.263 (pre tiger) and h.264 (tiger) images.

Well the apple store runs it over lan, thus its going to run highest quality possible...

Your using broadband, and you have to remember the quality will only go as far as both your upload speeds... if your broadband is like 128kbps upload and 1.5mbps; then you really can't expect anywhere near the same quality as apple is doing over lan.

Now Apple does say on their website that you only need 100kbps; but thats the absolute minimum and I've never seen a non-pixilated video conference on that amount of bandwidth.

So my asumption is your connection simply isnt quick enough; possibly if you both use tiger (and the new compression) you would get better quality. (unless you mean latest versions of all software and that includes tiger; though generaly when ive been told latest version they only mean the specific software their working with) See http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/ for a comparison of the H.263 (pre tiger) and h.264 (tiger) images.

Click to expand...

thanks; is there anyway to increase the upload speed on my internet service provider? or is it just set at whatever?

That would be set by your provider, in some cases they have different speed plans with different per month charges... so you might look into that.

Personaly id probibly just leave it like it is (but im pretty much just used to video chatting with people on a 56k modem and yahoo messenger; since most my friends are still running dialup)

Click to expand...

yeah, i think you are right; it's not worth the trouble-i did check with my ISP and they said i had the highest speed package with uploads up to 800 kbps (although that seems unlikely). Anyway, thanks....

iGlasses is pretty good but one of the other things that you can do is to actually increase the brightness of the room. Experimenting with a desk lamp being turned on etc can make a surprising difference to the level of detail that the iSight picks up.

The 'list' of improvements for 10.4.2 also includes aspects of iChat and bandwidth so things might also improve then.

Also in Preferences, under the 'Video' tab make sure you have Bandwidth Limit set to None. I think this is the default setting anyway but it's worth checking out. I've also heard people mention changing the connection settings in Quicktime Preferences can also help.

http://www.dslguide.org/ This site has a pretty good speed test tool. Also try doing a quick google search, just type in 'broadband speed test'. Run a few tests from a few different sites, and you should get a good indication of your bandwidth speeds.

I might have missed it, but you didnt say if you're running tiger or panther. I noticed a big improvement in the quality of the video in tiger. It was very noticable. Not sure if others have had such a dramatic improvement.

http://www.dslguide.org/ This site has a pretty good speed test tool. Also try doing a quick google search, just type in 'broadband speed test'. Run a few tests from a few different sites, and you should get a good indication of your bandwidth speeds.

I might have missed it, but you didnt say if you're running tiger or panther. I noticed a big improvement in the quality of the video in tiger. It was very noticable. Not sure if others have had such a dramatic improvement.

Jason

Click to expand...

Yeah, i am running tiger; i never really tried it out much with panther as my dad just got his mac with his isight; i will try the bandwidth tests- thanks.

this problem is not a problem as such. when you use isight your computer is encoding your video into H.264 and sending, a G4 processor is not able to do this as efficiant as a G5. so in short the picture your dad recieves will be better.

this problem is not a problem as such. when you use isight your computer is encoding your video into H.264 and sending, a G4 processor is not able to do this as efficiant as a G5. so in short the picture your dad recieves will be better.

sounds crazy but

take screen shots with shift, apple, 3

Click to expand...

that's good to know; he just ordered a G5 dual processor and plans to hook up his isight to that, so maybe when he gets his, the video that i receive will be of higher quality.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.